Anma Natsu

The footnotes in Aisuru by Anma Natsu are fascinating by themselves. They are a tour of Japanese culture, describing among other things: Japanese expressions, food types, and place descriptions. For example - “Honto no sumimasen” has a footnote which provides the English definition of “An extra apologetic apology, usually translated to truly, I am very sorry.” Another example defines “yakisoba” as “Fried ramen-style noodles, made from wheat flour, with a thick, sweetened sauce, vegetables, and a protein.”

Yet, this is not a tour guide. It’s a fantasy about a young Japanese woman named Sakura. She is a high school student who suffered damage to her internal organs when her father had a violent mental breakdown described as “integration disorder,” the term used in Japan for schizophrenia. Sakura has been told she will die soon and has decided to live out her life as a normal Japanese student. To achieve this goal and to avoid hurting people she knows too well, she has kept to herself and has told none of her friends.

Sakura is visited by a yokai, who was a friend of her adopted father. Yokais are “a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore.” (from Babylon NG) This one, Kazuki, also has royal blood. The story continues with love and adventure.

Early in the book Sakura says, “Yes, sometimes I wonder if textbook writers actually like history that much. They always write it in such a boring fashion.” I think Anma Natsu had this thought when writing her novel. This is a wonderful picture of Japan mixed in with a fun fantasy.

Steve Lindahl - author of Motherless Soul, White Horse Regressions, Hopatcong Vision Quest, and Under a Warped Cross.… (mehr)

I received a copy of this book from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.
Deviations was an intense and powerful story that didn't shy away from showing the darker side of highschool, mental health issues, or the secrets families keep. At its core, this is a love story between three teenagers trying to find their place in the world; these three lost souls find solace and love with one another despite all the forces working against them. Throughout the story, Taka, Shinji, and Miho learn to accept who they truly are and find happiness in what society deems an unconventional - or deviant - love.… (mehr)

I received this book in exchange for a non-biased review from the LibraryThing Giveaway.

If you enjoy young adult fiction, you may very well enjoy this book. It's a pretty quick read, and the characters and story are fairly decent. However, I did have some issues reading this book. There were quite a few typos and incorrect words used in the story. Also, the characters had pretty poor character development, and I felt like the romance was pushed way too soon to really provide an enthralling and believable love story. I did enjoy learned quite a bit about Japanese culture, but the footnotes on my Kindle were a little disruptive to my reading process (that's just me, though). Regardless, it was a decent read, and I enjoyed it overall, wanting to get to the end to see how it all ends.… (mehr)

Full disclosure: I received this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

This was a very interesting book. It had a pretty unique story line, but it wasn't so far out there that it made me not like it. The characters were interesting, and while there wasn't an incredible amount of time spent on fleshing out their every nuance and motivation, I still felt like I had a pretty good idea of how each main character would handle a particular situation, in general. The author also lets the reader discover each character over the course of the whole book, which I love. There's not a crazy-long exposition on who this person is at the beginning of the book that never comes into play again. The characters develop as things happen in the story, and you feel like you're learning about them as they are learning about themselves.

It does have fantasy-type elements throughout the book, especially toward the end, but that's my favorite genre, so it was fine for me. I know some people don't really care for it, though, so here's your warning.

I also thoroughly enjoyed learning a bit more about Japanese culture, simply by reading this book. I know a little bit about it from certain video games and from a history of drama class that I took, but I know a little bit more now, thanks to the research this author did and her explanatory footnotes that were easily accessible on my Kindle. The footnotes were also not intrusive, which I truly appreciate. It was just a superscript number that I could touch and have the footnote pop up, then close it and pick up right where I left off in the story. Doing it this way provided context, and made it easy to understand a more nuanced meaning of the words and phrases she used that needed a bit of explanation. No weird back-and-forth between the story and the footnotes. Yay!

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a fantasy-laced book about the life of a girl who thought her world ended long ago and the people who show her what life can be if you let people in.… (mehr)